Thursday, January 2, 2014

When Jazz Happened Here; The Birth of the Music in Worcester

Jazz,
like all genres of music did not spring forth from its womb fully
formed. It is a product of many sources and negotiations. It is a
gumbo -- a melting pot of sound -- derived from a variety of cultures,
clashes, and climes.

Historians
report that it was born at the dawn of the 20th century and it is the
culmination of African and Caribbean rhythms, Ragtime, the marching
music of brass bands, European art songs and arias, and, the blues.
Improvisation is at its core. And, today, it is universally
recognized as a uniquely American art form.

Main Street, across from City Hall, 1906

Trying
to find the original wellspring of the music however, has always been
an elusive chase. It is like trying to locate an ocean’s first
raindrop. Here in Worcester, undoubtedly the first strains of jazz
were carried to New England by records, radio, and touring musicians.

As
Ken Burns correctly chronicled in his PBS series on the music: “Jazz
had been born in New Orleans and brought up in Chicago and New York,
but by the mid-1920s, it was being played in dance halls and
speakeasies everywhere.” For example, see The Journal of the
Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Volume 23, that reported, “the
Annual Alumni Banquet of Epsilon Deuteron Chapter of the Phi Sigma
Kappa fraternity was held at the State Mutual Restaurant, Saturday
evening May 5, 1920. Fifty five members of the active chapter and
thirty-five alumni gathered for the occasion. The Phi Sigma Kappa
jazz orchestra furnished its usual high class entertainment.”

Identifying
local musicians who embraced the new music before the Jazz Age
arrived, however, is much more daunting. It is not until the 1920s do
we begin to see advertisements for Worcester bands and musicians
playing “Hot Jazz.” Some of the earliest practitioners of the
improvisation art include local musicians who would leave town and
become prominent players on the national scene. Their names are Einar
Swan (1903), Wendell Cully (1906), Irving Peskin (1908), and Paul
Clement (1910), as well as others who called Worcester home.

MAMIE MOFFITT

Though
born in New Bedford in 1884, Mamie Moffitt is an important figure in Worcester jazz history. According to Prof. Rich Falco, director of
Jazz Studies at WPI, Moffitt assembled the first professional jazz
ensemble in Worcester. The dates are “sometime before 1922.” The
band is called Mamie Moffitt and Her 5 Jazz-Hounds. Members of the
group included Moffitt (piano), her husband Wallace Moffitt (cornet),
his brother Alfred Moffitt (saxophone), Alfred's nephew Harold Black
(violin and banjo), Boots Ward (drums) and John Byard (trombone), the
father of Jaki Byard.

“Occasionally
Wendell Culley (trumpet) played with this group,” Falco wrote.
“Unfortunately, no recordings exist of this earliest of Central MA
jazz groups. Through interviews with those who heard this ensemble,
it is clear that they played the "hot" music of the period
with outstanding improvisations and professional arrangements.”

Falco
added that due to health reasons, Moffitt led the band until about
1928, at which time her drummer, Boots Ward, formed his own group,
the Nite Hawks, which featured three members of Moffitt's 5
Jazz-Hounds: Ward, Black and Byard. The group would later be taken
over by Ray Schuyler and later, Freddie Bates.

Falco
also noted that in 1929, while still under the direction of Boots
Ward, two "young lions" of the Worcester jazz scene were
asked to join the Nite Hawks. They were 16 year-old trumpeter Elwood
"Barney" Price, and 15 year-old saxophonist Howard "Howie"
Jefferson, both would remain with the Nite Hawks for 10 years.

“A
young high school student, Jaki Byard, began writing his first
arrangements at this time and these were used by the Nite Hawks while
it was directed by Freddie Bates. Jaki Byard also began playing piano
on occasion with the Nite Hawks,” Falco said.

One
of the first Worcester-born players to rise to national prominence
was Einar Swan, a child prodigy who played a parade of different
instruments and best known as the author of the jazz standard, “When
Your Lover Has Gone.”

Swan
was born in Fitchburg, but grew up in Worcester where he graduated
from Commerce High School. He was interviewed by the Telegram &
Gazette at the time and is quoted as saying, “Jazz is coming
and perfectly legitimate development of modern music. All musicians
are turning to it, some more, some less. The modern way of
syncopating the classics is extremely popular and is bringing the
best things in music to the people who never hear them before. Jazz
is now firmly established, the music of the future, and already has
become classic in a certain way; the only difference being that it is
more alive than the older type of music.”

Swan (front row holding sax) and his Serenaders

After
graduating from high school, Swan formed the Swanie Serenaders
affording him the opportunity to “play his own kind of music.”
Organized in Worcester in 1922, the group featured among
others pianist Sam Swenson, drummer Ernest Paul, violinist
Julius Levinsky, banjo player Joe Toscano, trumpeter Billy Conn,
trombonist Oscar Werme, and its leader Swan who doubled on all reeds.
Werme would later switch to the tuba and join Paul Whiteman’s
Leviathan Orchestra.

In
his short lifetime – he died of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of
37 – he played with such legendary figures as the Dorsey Brothers,
Vincent Lopez, Red Nichols, and Xavier Cugat.

Trumpeter
Wendell Culley also graduated from Commerce, where he was a classmate
of Swan’s younger sister Aida. Cully’s dream was to be the first
black trumpet to play in an American symphony. His dream was
deferred not out of ability, but race. He was denied entrébecause
of his skin color. Jazz became the alternative.

While
still in high school, Culley would play both music while in
pursuit of orchestral aspirations. He played in both the school
orchestra and stage band, as well as soloist at A.M.E. Zion Church.
In 1924 he was given the superlative of “class musician.” As
mentioned, who performed with Mamie Moffitt and Her 5 Jazz-Hounds,
and after leaving high school set out to work professionally in
Boston and New York, eventually working in the best bands of the era
– the century for that matter, including Noble Sissle, Cab
Calloway, Lionel Hampton, and Count Basie, among others.

Cornetist
Irving Peskin is another early Worcester luminary. Born in Worcester
in 1908, he was bitten by the jazz bug after hearing Bix Beiderbecke
play on the radio. “We had crystal sets,” he said. “We were
little kids. That was the big thing around Worcester. We used to get
stations from New York and all over the place. We were tuned in
listening to everything.”

Peskin
went to Classical High School. At 15, he shared the first cornet
chair in the school orchestra. At 16, he left school to play music
full-time. “I actually hardly finished high school,” Peskin said.
“I made it a point of going back. I came back from New York, put in
a few months, and got a high school diploma.”

While
still in school, Peskin began studying with Georges Mager, principal
trumpet with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He organized his first
band in 1922 with the help of his saxophone playing brother Charles.
The band played social gigs from Worcester to Boston, where he gained
entrance to greater opportunity. There, the cornetist was seen by
other bandleaders who recognized and enlisted his talent. The rest is
a storied career that took him from studio work in New York (including on some of Thomas Edison’s first recordings), to session
work in Hollywood. See:

The
eldest son of Italian immigrants Matteo Clemente and Raffaella
(Tomaiolo) Clemente, Paul Clemente was born on January 19, 1910.
“His first instrument was violin, but eventually he gravitated
toward the ukulele at an early age,” wrote Falco for the www.jazzhistorydatabase.com “He later settled on banjo and guitar as his
preferred instruments. For his young son Paul, Matteo Clemente was
able to arrange banjo lessons with another member of the Italian
community, Joe Tuscano.

“Later,
Paul began a serious course of study on the guitar with Cosmo
Lomatieri (known as Ned Cosmo), a well known Central MA musician who
played with a “society band,” called Ed Murphy and his Bohemians
in the 1920’s. Paul’s father, Matteo, owned a small Italian
restaurant called The Vesuvio in which there was a jukebox, which
contained the latest recordings of Louis Armstrong, Joe Oliver,
Jelly Roll Morton, the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, Bix Beiderbecke
as well as other Dixieland style ensembles.”

Clem's Commodores, Clement at far left

Falco
also noted that “Paul, and his younger brother Pete, also a
guitarist, transcribed and memorized many jazz solos by Django
Reinhardt, Eddie Lang, Louis Armstrong, and many others by repeatedly
playing these newly released recordings. Both Paul and Pete would
entertain customers in the restaurant, giving the two aspiring young
musicians an outlet for their music with the blessing of their
father.”

In
1927, Paul Clemente formed his own group which he called “Clem’s
Commodores” with John Lescoe (coronet), Leo Quercio (alto
saxophone), Paul Mandella (piano), Joe Nuzzolillo (drums), and Paul
himself on banjo, guitar and vocals. “Paul was completely taken
with Louis Armstrong and wholly embraced his approach to rhythm and
relaxed, lyrical improvisation,” Falco said.

Clem’s
Commodores, which played primarily the new “hot jazz”, worked all
the local nightclubs of the period. In the early 1930s, Clemente, now called Paul Clement, joined the Dud Goldman Band and from 1933-’35, he played in the
Hughie Connor Band. By 1935, Clemente began working his way out of
Worcester, eventually playing in New York and later New Orleans.
Billed as the Paul Clement Trio, the string-player signed with the
William Morris Agency and recorded sides for the Crystal Tone Label.

WORCESTERITES These exceptional artists are the few who rose to national prominence playing jazz out of Worcester. However, there were countless others who chose to remain in the city and play in our midst. Reaching back to the 1920s, their names are carried along by bandmates, family members, and local legend. Though not famous, they are not lost and their contributions to the development of jazz in Worcester, should be recognized and never forgotten.

Note: This is a work in progress. Comments, corrections, and suggestions are always welcome at: walnutharmonicas@gmail.com. Also see:www.worcestersongs.blogspot.comThank you.

Thanks for the kind words. I know of Ned Cosmo, but I don't know of the connection to the club. I remember the Club Cosmo, even went to a show there once. I'll have to dig into it. Thanks for the tip and regards.

Hello,Wonderful blog post! I was wondering if you could tell me a little bit more about the Knights of Pythias Brass Band or could guide me in the right direction as to where you found the picture/any more info about them?